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This week we actually do talk about 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball, plus another nice basketball set came out 2010/11 Gold Standard, and 2011 Topps Football came out - so we touch on all 3 major sports this week.

There were some bits of hobby news,Topps Purchases GMG - basically the gift cards & digital currency of Facebook is now property of Topps Company. I heard speculation a few weeks ago that Topps was actually looking to sell the company ... now they make a fairly major acquisition. This doesn't mean the company isn't for sale, but it is interesting to see them move in on this company. Will Topps make 'virtual' cards now? I'm not sure ... but this does make the company more attractive to potential buyers or take-over firms.

Blowout/Frontline Collectibles sues Upper DeckI'm no lawyer, so I can't tell you much here ... however I do know that brands like Titleist, Coach, Ralph Lauren, Nike and many others can only be purchased at certain stores, for certain prices. If you break the rules, you don't sell the items anymore. Doesn't seem much different with Upper Deck, except Blowout feels they are the 'Wal-Mart' of cards, and they deserve to sell the product. I side with UD and the companies on this one, because if they are making a bad decision - they will look to sell to you in the future. By sueing in open court, Blowout is burning bridges that probably won't allow them to sell Upper Deck products when the first come out no matter what happens.

The NFL Is BACK FOR REAL!That's right ... we've already seeen teams cut/sign players, and the trend should continue throughout the week. It should be really exciting to see the teams start to play in the pre-season next month. As usual, I have high hopes for the Bengals - but I'm sure by mid-season I will be saying how much I hate the NFL .... but we'll see.

2010/11 Gold Standard Basketball seemed like a winner before it came out, but it even impressed me more once it did. There are some pretty cool cards in here, including Solid Gold & Gold Rush (cards with small chunck of gold). The set is really deep & filled with mostly veteran NBA players ... not just rookies. People have been finding a good number of Kobe Bryant autographs, as this might be the first summer in years Kobe's had time to sign! Boxes sold for $180 when they first went live & are selling for about the same now. I this this product might be worth the gamble by the 10-Box case, because just a single box for $180 is a heavy gamble ... where $180 on singles might yeild better results. I've been bidding on the Jordan Crawford RC's, which seem to sell for about $15-$18.

2011 Topps Allen & Ginter BaseballThe baseball set you either love or hate is back. I just tried a $4.99 value pack from Target without much luck ... and I've seen a $500 Ichiro Rip Card opened up only to yeild a Ubaldo Jiminez card! This set hasn't lit the hobby world on fire, possibly due to the lack of 'prospects' or big name autographs. In fact, the Ryan Howard autograph featured on boxes isn't even in the product!

2011 Topps Football is now live! I haven't seen any real surprises yet from this product, except Jumbo boxes were hitting more than the pre-release odds ... so that's cool. The Super Bowl MVP cards are neat, and there are lots of different cards in that set including stamps & coins.